The present invention relates to an electronic trip meter for an automotive vehicle, and more particularly relates to an alarm system for the electronic trip meter for providing an alarm so that the driver can perceive both impending and actual arrival at intermediate and final destinations.
As a trip meter for an automotive vehicle, conventionally, a mechanical device has been used which transmits a number representative of the number of revolutions of the vehicle road wheels to a counter provided with a digital display device. This type of trip meter can display actual distance travelled from the reset point (or start point) to the present point, if zeroed at the start point.
However, in order to know the remaining distance from the present point to the next destination, it is necessary to previously determine the total distance from the start point to the destination and subtract the distance displayed on a trip meter from the predetermined total distance. In addition, there is a need to know the remaining distances to both the intermediate and final destinations, in the case of long trip.
For the above purpose, a trip meter has been proposed to which the operator can previously present information relating to a plurality of intermediate destinations and the final destination, and which sounds an alarm for a certain period of time whenever the vehicle comes near to or arrives at the intermediate destinations or the final destination, displaying the remaining distance to the final destination.
The trip meter described above, however, sounds an alarm for a fixed period of time at points shortly before the intermediate and final destinations and also at the intermediate and final destinations. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish these alarms, because the time intervals between them vary according to the vehicle speed, with the result that the driver is confused when hearing the alarm.